


With Head Held High

by loopyhoopyfrood



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: F/M, Pirate AU, flashfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-17 06:07:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14826785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loopyhoopyfrood/pseuds/loopyhoopyfrood
Summary: A continuation of my Pirate AU (found in chapter 4 of AU Drabbles) written for the flashfic challenge.The prompt was fortress, fragile, Dialogue: “Do any of us really get what we deserve?”.





	With Head Held High

**Author's Note:**

> For those who haven't read my original pirate AU; Captain Fisher and Admiral Robinson were preparing to take down a ship run by Fletcher that was smuggling young girls. This is the aftermath.  
> I re-started half way through, so this whole thing was written in about forty minutes, so apologies for any errors!

She’d once sworn to him that she would walk to the noose with her head held high.

He’d accepted her terms, following her onto the dark waves with nothing but a passing thought for his own fate, but he’d never imagined he’d be witness to her vow. The crowds treat her as a villain, a legend of terror brought low before them, but the once feared Captain Fisher pays them no heed. The gallows are her fortress, and she their queen, and she takes her place atop the wooden step as if it were the grandest of thrones.

Jack is the next to mount the gallows. The rope is coarse, scratching against his ungloved hands as he slowly lowers the noose to rest against her shoulders. His participation had been her one request, and as much as he hates it he finds he cannot begrudge her. The law demands her death, but her actions make her deserving of dignity, and if that is all he can offer her then he will do so willingly.

“You don’t deserve this.”

His whispered words are barely audible, wary of those surrounding them who watch him with suspicious eyes and ears, but he knows that she hears him. It’s not an apology, there is no apology he can make, but he cannot leave her in silence. It’s not a goodbye either, for even though he’s holding the instrument of her death in his hands he finds he cannot reconcile the woman he knows with the empty husk they think she will become. In stories and in flesh, Captain Fisher has always been vibrantly alive, and there is a large part of him that refuses to believe a loop of fragile rope capable of changing that.

“Do any of us really get what we deserve?”

His hands clench into the twisted strands. They both know who should be standing here, both know that there are crimes far worse that a branded letter on a pale wrist. Yet child trafficking is brushed aside when those responsible for upholding the law find their own pockets padded.

“I’ll catch him.” Jack swears, voice still low but no longer caring who hears, “I promise you, Phryne. I’ll catch him.”

She turns her head, and as the rope brushes the side of her cheek he’s the one who winces. He shouldn’t be surprised that she’s grinning, he could never imagine her facing death as anything other than her next great adventure, but there’s a twinkle in her eyes that makes him wonder what he’s missed.

“Not if I catch him first.”

He wants to question, but then she winks at him, and somehow that’s all the reassurance he needs. Captain Fisher may have mounted the gallows with her head held high, but she does not plan on dying today. He finds himself smiling back, a rueful twitch of his lips that says he should have seen this coming, but before he can speak further there’s a scream from the gathered crowd and the rope is suddenly falling slack in his hands.

Phryne dates forwards, presses a brief kiss to his lips, and then all hell breaks loose.


End file.
